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1815.]

Exhibition of the Royal Academy, &c.

worthy of notice, though the few specimens that are exhibited are creditable to the talents of the exhibitors. The architectural department is better, but inferior to the last; yet the talent that this and the last seven years have displayed, proves that the nation requires nothing but public spirit to produce buildings worthy of any age or clime. "C'est peu," says Voltaire, in his General History, d'avoir des Vitruves; il faut que les Augustes les employent." We shall now proceed to point out numerically, with brief remarks, the most striking beauties of the present exhibition; keeping in view, as we have always hitherto done, the opinion stated in our motto--that severity of criticism is fatul to the growth of the fine arts.

No. I. Portrait of T. W. Coke, Esq. M. P. by R. R. REINAGLE, A. is an unaffected well painted whole-length.

No. 5. The Primate of Ireland, W. OWEN, R. A. is like all of Mr. Owen's works, forcible in its expression, excellent in its drawing and colouring, and faithful in its effect.

No. 16. Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Dawson Turner, Miss M. and Miss E. Turner, by T. PHILLIPS, R. A. is one of those small whole-length fancy groupes for which Mr. Phillips is so celebrated.

No. 22. Portrait of Major-General Sir R. H. Vivian, K. C. B. by M. A. SHEE, R. A. This is one of the most splendid portraits in the exhibition, but rather too gaudy in colour.

No. 28. Portrait of Mrs. Wolff, Sir THOMAS LAWRENCE, R. A. This is a profile view of a beautiful woman, habited in white satin drapery, reading a folio volume, apparently by lamp-light: we say apparently, because the effect is clearly that of day-light. By expunging the flame of the lamp, it would become one of the most perfect pieces of mo

dern art.

No. 39. Melpomene, by G. F. JOSEPH, A. is a stiff inanimate figure; more like inarble than the true flesh and blood of which the original is composed.

No. 45. Portrait of W. Praed, Esq. W. OWEN, R. A. This admirable picture embraces all the excellencies of the master, and is, in truth, a chef-d'œuvre. No. 55. Sabrina: Milton's Comus: H. HOWARD, R. A.

She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pur

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Of her enraged step-dame, Guendolen, Commended her fair innocence to the flood, That stay'd her flight with his cross-flowing course;

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The water nymphs, that in the bottom play'd, Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in. The water nymphs are represented as at the bottom of the stream, receiving with extended arms and upheld wrists the maid Sabrina, seeking their protection. The element in which they supernaturally exist is well pourtrayed, and the upper surface of the water correctly defined, giving a perfect idea of beings living and breathing in the aqueous element. The poetical imagery is admirably personified, and does ample justice to the immortal epic bard of England, whose beautiful fancies have never before been so well depicted as by the elegant and faucy-breathing pencil of Howard.

The remainder of our remarks on this exhibition shall be given in our next.

THE EXHIBITION OF THE SOCIETY Or PAINTERS IN OIL AND WATER COLOURS

(the eleventh) AT THE GREAT ROOM, SPRING GARDENS. 1815.

This useful and praiseworthy little association of artists have, for the eleventh time, opened a most gratifying exhibition to the public. The water colour paintings are as usual excellent, and those in oil give sufficient proof that their authors are adequate to both vehicles of pictorial representation. In this exhibition there is a greater equality of talent than in that of the Royal Academy; and on account of having few or no portraits, a greater scope is given to invention. Where there is so much excellence, it is impossible in our limits to mention every work of merit; but we regret this the less, as a greater knowledge of art, and more love for their fascinating pursuits, is now diffused among the community. We shall, therefore, enumerate a few of the most striking pictures; observing generally, that they are truly excellent, and affix a high reputation on the artists who produced, and the society that has thus collected them together.

The first picture that attracts our notice is, No. 18, Belvidera in a Chamber in the House of Aqualina, a Greek Courtezan, by A. W. DEVIS. This is a portrait of Miss O'Neill, which, besides having the merit of a faithful likeness, is an excellent representation of Belvidera's soliloquy, beginning "I'm sacrific'd! I'm sold shame!

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betray'd to

Inevitable ruin has enclosed me! He that should guard my virtue has betray'd it;

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Exhibition of Painters in Oil and Water Colours.

Left me undone me! Oh that I could hate

him!

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Venice Preserved, act iii, scene 1. In the distance the celebrated Rialto, which, with the other accessories, clearly defines the scene, is well introduced and excellently painted. This is the picture, we believe, announced by us a short time since as having been painted for the house of Boydell and Co. for publication, and it is as creditable to their liberality, as to the artist's well known and long appreciated merits.

Mr. WILD's View at the East End of Lincoln Cathedral, with the Monuments of Wymbish, Cantalupe, Burgeish, and Flemming, No. 30 is in oils; a style we do not remember to have seen this artist use before; yet it has every appearance of ease, and of a practised pencil. In its drawing it is as correct as mathematical precision could make it, and in colouring nothing can be more faithful; while the choice of the station causes the interesting monuments of Winy bish, Cantalupe, Burgeish, and Flemming, to groupe in a very picturesque manner. The picture, on the whole, entitles Mr. Wild to no small fame as an able architectural painter.

Nos. 35, 36, & 37, by H. Corbould, are tasteful compositions on Childelarold's Pilgrimage and the Giaour, by Lord Byron, and Rokeby, by Walter Scott.-40, is The Confessional in Norwich Cathedral, by MACKENZIE 51, is a View in Ten kesbury Abbey-and 52, a View at Bath, in water colours, by WILD.-58, A View in Oxford Cathedral, by the same artist, possessing in a high degree those indis- peusable requisites in architectural and antiquarian subjects, fidelity and correctness, with an excellent effect of light and shade.-69, 70, and 71, are Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire; Snowdon, from Capel Cerrig, North Wales; and Valle Crucis Abbey, near Llangollen, North Wales; by J. VARLEY,

No. 75 is a Model of a Monument to the Memory of Mary Ann Johnes, who died in the bloom of youth, after a few days illness. She was the only child of Thomas and Jane Johnes, who are represented attending her in her dying moments. The marble groupe from this model, which may be seen at Mr. Chantrey's, 13, Ecclestone-street, Pimlico, will be placed in the Church of Hajod, Cardiganshire. F. L. CHANTREY.-This simple, unaffected, pathetic composition,

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embraces all that is possible in the art, without attempting those flights of allegory that disgraced the sculptors of a century ago. A mother and father are represented holding the hands, and receiving the last sigl, of a beauteous, an affectionate, an accomplished, an ontg child, stretched in the full-blown bloom of youth on the couch of death. Her pursuits are indicated by her pallet and pencils, and her roll of music, lying uc glected by her side, with

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Angels, ever bright and fair, Take, oh take me to your care!" appropriately inscribed on the latter.— A less skilful artist than Mr. Chantrey would have had allegories and personfication without end here would have stood a woman, called in a written description Painting; there would have stood another named Music; instead of the pathos of the father and mother, which are here truly heart-rending, we might have had a lady standing, holding a pet of plants, touching one, and called in the written paper Sensibility. Mr. Chantrey las avoided all this, and has succeeded in producing a work that will stamp celebrity on his name.

87, Ulleswater: Stormy Sun-set: J. GEOVER. Mr. Glover has in this charming picture given by his stormy effect an appropriate and poetical character to this romantic view.-112, Durham Cothedral, G. F. ROBSON; a well chosen, novel, and picturesque disposition of this venerable cathedral, and beautiful site and vicinity; as is 124, another View of Durham, and 125, Bishop Auckland, by the same artist.-128, Walnut gathering at Petersham, near Richmond, Surrey,W. HAVELL, is a novel, striking, admirably brilliant sunny effect, cast with as much truth as skill, on one of the finest close views in England. The busy effect of the figures, the lively character of the cock and his groupe of hens scratching among the leaves, following their wellknown benefactors- the faithfulness with which the characters of the trees are preserved, the singular beauty of the aerial perspective, and the novel ma angement of the whole-render this one of the most interesting and admirably painted landscapes of the British school. Sorry are we to find that, for some unexplained reason, this excellent work was returned on the artist's hands, as unft for exhibition at the last exhibition of the British Institution.

We shall resume our remarks on this exhibition in our next.

1815.] Exhibition of Pictures of the Flemish and Dutch Schools

EXHIBITION OF PICTURES BY RUBENS,
REMBRANDT, VANDYKE, AND OTHER
ARTISTS OF THE FLEMISH AND DUICH

SCHOOLS, with which the Proprietors
have favoured the British Institution
for the gratification of the Public, and
for the benefit of the Fine Arts in ge-
neral, now exhibiting at the Gallery
of the British Institution in Pall
Mall.

The exhibition here presented to the student, the connoisseur, and the public in general, is perhaps the richest and most valuable of its schools ever displayed in one collection. It consists of the choicest subjects of the Dutch and Flemish schools, selected with great taste and knowledge from the collection. of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, the Dukes of Marlborough, Bedford, and Grafton, Dowager Duchess of Buccleugh, the Marquisses of Stafford and Camden, the Marchioness of Thomond,the Earls of Egremont, Darnley, Mulgrave, Aberdeen, Grosvenor, llchester, Ashburnham, Carlisle, Harrington, Jersey, Liverpool, Upper Ossory, Cowper, and Fitzwilliam; Visc. Palmerston; Lords Dundas, De Dunstauville, and George Cavendish: Ladies Lucas and Stuart; the Right Hon. Charles Long, Sir Abraham Hume, Sir W. W. Wynne, Sir Geo. Beaumont, Sir Sim. Clark, bart. Hou. A. Phipps, Dulwich College, Rev. W. H. Carr, A. Champernowne, J. Graves, J. J. Angerstein, C. Duncombe, M. P. Jeremiah Harman, John Knight, George Hayter, W. Smith, M.P. R. P. Knight, H. P. Hope, G. Hibbert, John Graves, John Deal, J. F. Tuffeo, W. Smith, M.P. R. H. Davies, M.P. P. Metcalfe and J. Thompson, Esqrs. and Mrs. Arnold.

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The list of premiums for the current year, the admirable preface of the Directors, and a brief notice of the collection itself, are deferred till the next month.

INTELLIGENCE.

It is with the greatest satisfaction that we inform our readers that Mr. HAYDry's celebrated picture of the Judg. ment of Solomon is again arrived in London, where it is to be exhibited for a short time, by permission of its liberal and munificent owners, Sir WM. ELLFORD, Bart., and G. HI. TINGCOMBE, Esq. previous to its final deposition in the Town Hall at Plymouth, the birth-place

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of the painter, to the corporation of which they have with almost unexampled liberality presented it. This is the first example of the kind since the time of that Mecenas of the Fine Arts, the late Alderman BoYDELL, but we trust it will have many followers. It has just opened to the public at the Athebeam rooms, No. 5, Princes-street, Leicester-square.--For an account of this picture, see our Magazine for July last, vol. 1, p. 560.

Mr. MACDONALD, of the Foet's Gellery, Flect-street, has issued prionsuds for publishing by subscription, a View in Hyde Park, representing This Noval Highness the Prince Regent, accompa nied by their Majesties the Faperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, Marshal Blucher, the Hetman Platoff, and several distinguished foreign and British Officers, after the Review on the 20th of June, 1814. To be engraved from an original picture painted by Mr. Alex. Sauerweid, now on view at the exhib tion of water-colour drawings, at the Great Room, Spring Gardens." The size of the print will be 30 inches by 19. The portraits are to be engraved by Mr. Scriven, whose abilities we have often had occasion to extol; the figures and landscape are etched by Mr. Sauerweid himself, which we may safely pronounce, from close inspection, as a very artistlike effort of the needle-and it will be aquatinted by Mr. J. Hill. The drawing may be seen at the Spring Garden Exhibition, and the etching at Mr. Macdonald's, where copies of the prospectus may be had.

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The Anniversary of the Artists' Fund for the general Relief of Distressed Artists, their Widows and Orphans, took place on the 17th inst. at the Albion Hotel, Aldersgate-street. His Royal Highness the Duke of Lent was in the chair, supported by his royal brother of Susse 2. between whom was the venerable Presdent of the Royal Academy.should desert in" art" be crowned." It reminds one of Lionardi da Vinci and his illustrious imperial patron and supporter. It may be necessary, to prevent confusion, to add, that there is another laudable Artists' Fund, whose anniversary has just passed, but whose charitable aid is confined, like a benefit society, to its own members only.

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DRAMATIC REGISTER.

[WE have the satisfaction of informing the large portion of our readers whom we know to attach importance to this department of our work, that we have been fortunate enough to engage the assistance of a gentleman particularly qualified by his pursuits to do justice to the subject of the drama. We deem it our duty to give this pointed notice of the circumstance, lest any occasional deviation from opinions previously expressed should be considered as inconsistencies in the writer.]

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.-April 22, a new tragedy, called Ina, the production of a lady, was performed at this theatre. As it is understood to be withdrawn from the stage, it is needless to occupy our space with a detail of the plot. The scene was laid in England during the Heptarchy. The construction of the plot was calculated to excite but a feeble interest; in consequence of which, and the unskilful management of Mrs. Glover's part (Edelfrida), considerable disapprobation was shewn during the latter scenes, and the close became quite inaudible. Tenderness to the sex of the writer, an absence of any thing offensive, and the uniform chasteness and occasional elegance of the language of this picce, would, we doubt not, have procured it at least a favourable hearing, and probably a short-lived success, but for the total waut of any thing in the cha-. racter allotted to Mr. Kean (Egbert) to call forth his singular and various powers. A most anxious though indefinite interest had been excited in the au dience to see this actor in a character of which they could anticipate, nothing; and when the expectation thus raised endes in blank disappointment, they were not likely to be in a very indulgent hupour.-In the present state of the pub lic habits (we will not say taste) with res spect to the drama, we despair of ever seeing a legitimate tragedy produced: and yet it would be difficult to point out au era in our literary history so rich in the talents necessary for a work of this kind as the present one, with the single exception of the era of Elizabeth. But the poets to whom we allude distain, and it is fit they should disdain, those arts of which he must be a master who would at present court popular success in the serious drama. What poet, worthily so called, will quit the fancy peopled world of hills and streams, and green fields and blue skies, for the (to

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him) solitude of towns and cities-will hazard debasing his mind, blunting his sensibilities, and unhumanizing his heart, behind the scenes of a theatre? Yet this he must do who would write a tragedy that shall have a chance of success on the stage. There is a female now living who possesses talents for dramatic poetry superior to any other of her sex that we could name, of any age or country. All her studies, too, have had a reference to the one object of producing acting dramas: it has been her chief am bition-a most mistaken one, we think; yet she has failed in every instance, simply because she has too much genius to catch the paltry details that are necessary to be used and avoided in order to please, or rather not to displease, a modern audience. We speak of Miss JoANNA BAILLIE. We hope she has before this seen the mischief of persisting in so vain an attempt. Had she the genius of Shakspeare she would inevitably fail: while it is equally lamentable, that Pizarros, Foundlings of the Forest, and such like monstrous productions, without a single developement of human cha racter, without a single burst of passion, yet meet with unmingled success, by dint of what their authors call " stage effect;" which, being interpreted, signifies the " art or mystery" of placing the senses in a state of unnatural, and therefore mischievous, excitement; and of inordinately administering to that idlest of all our mental propensities, mere curio sity. This " art or mystery" of playmaking is only to be learned, like book making, shoe-making, and others of the same kind, by a seven years' apprenticeship; and while it requires just as little peculiar talent, is much less respectable than most other trades, because its end is highly pernicious.

Our limits oblige us to quit this subject abruptly: we shall take the first op portunity of returning to it.

· On Saturday, April 28, Mr. Kean appeared in the character of Penruddock. This character is very skilfully drawn, We see here a noble mind, driven from the world by the most complicated suf ferings, and living for twenty years m the retirement (some call it the solitude) of books, nature, and his own heartThese are dangerous companions for weakness or wickedness brooding over injuries and revenge: but to a noble na ture, they furnish at once the indemnity

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and the cure. Accordingly we find in Penruddock a heart overflowing with benevolence to every living being-a mind whose very exaltation has bumbled it, till he does not disdain to think of "the poor cat, his peaceable companion." If revenge sometimes continues to intrude upon his thoughts, it never enters his heart; it is no longer a passion, but a habit. If, in the bitterness of remembrance, he sometimes seeks shelter beneath the language of misanthropy, it is only the misanthropy of the lips.

Little extent or variety of powers, either moral or physical, can be called forth in the performance of this character. It requires, however, much delicacy of feeling, and the rare faculty of expressing simple pathos. This faculty Mr. Kean possesses in a degree to which no other actor of the present day makes any approach. His performance was the perfection of truth and nature: there was nothing to be dazzled with-nothing to wonder at-shall we say, nothing to admire? It excited no inclination to clap one's hands, and to make exclamations (we speak for ourselves): but when delight gave us leave to inquire into our feelings, we found them written on our face in the mixed language of tears and smiles. The novelties in the detail of the performance were, the sudden transition from the peaceful sleep of the passions, to the eager and burried confusion into which they appeared to be for a moment thrown, on being unexpectedly awakened with the news that "Woodville was in his power." The silent gaze, too, of affectionate eagerness with which Penruddock traced the features of the mother in those of the son, was equally new and beautiful; and also the self-approving smile with which he dismissed "the last bad passion from his heart," on going out to Woodville. We must not, however, in justice forget to notice another novelty, which was, that Mr. Kean gave no particular expression whatever to the words" Henry wanted a wife-a wife wanted a settlementand I stood in need of neither." This oversight (for we suppose it was such) was the more remarkable, because his predecessor in the part gives singular beauty and effect to these words, particularly the latter ones. In our delight at the rest of the performance, we did not observe this omission, till it was pointed out by a critic, who at the same time says, that the defect of Mr. Kenn's performance was a "want of keeping."

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If we had studied to think of the last defect that could have been charged upon it, we should have fixed upon this: and yet the critic who makes this objec tion, appears to appreciate the perform ance justly in other respects.

Mrs. Davison played Emily Tempest delightfully.-Mr. Dowton is the most natural of actors; but in the Governor, we could not help thinking him rather too much so. People, to be sure, do sometimes forget what they are going to say; but to do this on the stage, is something too natural.-Penruddock was followed by Ways and Means, in which Mr. Bartley played Sir David Dunder. This was the first opportunity we have had of seeing him; and from what we could judge of him in a part so little adapted to call forth powers of any value, we have formed a very favourable opinion of his comic talents. We shall endeavour, in our next, to give them the attention they deserve.

Richard the Second has been several times repeated at this theatre. A certain kind of persons, who are willing enough to bestow their praise, but who do not chuse it should be snatched from them, allow that Mr. Kean is " a very clever young man," but deny him the genius which his real admirers claim for him. If you were to ask this sort of people their opinion of Shakspeare, they would fall into all kinds of raptures, and overwhelm you with epithets and exclamations. "Oh, the divine poet! Oh, the immortal bard!" and so on. This is all you would be able to get from them; and yet, had they happened to have lived at the time he wrote, their admiration would have been of the most deliberate kind; or if it had ever reached as far as wonder, would have been qualified by a "considering his defective education, and his limited means of observation.' These are the persons who turn to the spectator before they dare admire Milton. Mr. Kean furnishes a triumphant answer to his lukewarm panegyrists, and a full justification of his most enthusias tic ones, in his performance of Richard IL: it is as much the creation of a poetical mind as the Puck or the Caliban are. When he was announced for the character, we were at a loss to conjectare what could have induced the seleo tion of it. In the Richard II. of Shakspeare, we could discern nothing but the fretful strugglings of weakness against necessity-the querulous impatience of a spoilt child reluctantly yielding up its playthings to resistless force; a being

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